Garage sales, also called yard sales, are some of the best ways to acquire things at a steeply discounted price. Pretty much anything you want you might find at someone’s garage sale on a Saturday morning. I love garage sales, it is the free market at its best! The principle is simple, someone has stuff they don’t want so they have a garage/yard sale at their house. You come by, check to see if there is anything you want, and if something catches your eye you buy it at either the marked price or you make an offer. Garage sales are also a great way to get rid of stuff you no longer want and get some pocket money. I am going to give tips and pointers gathered over the years from experienced garage salers for both buying at garage sales and hosting a garage sale.
Locating Garage Sales – So how do you find garage sales? A check of the local newspaper on Friday and Saturday should give you a few leads but honestly the best way is to hit the streets and look. Intersections are great places to post signs for a garage sale as are entrances to developments and subdivisions. You will discover the common garage sale areas specific to your part of town and quickly development a strategy for checking for signs. Pay attention to community yard sales as they will usually advertise in advance and have a higher concentration of garage sales in a smaller area. Moving sales are also good as in theory the sellers are especially motivated to get rid of their items.
Timing – The accepted time to have a garage/yard sale is on Saturday morning, starting at the crack of dawn if you are a serious garage saler looking for the good stuff. Later in the morning and afternoon you can still find stuff but it is usually fairly picked over and most people pack it up by mid-afternoon. Friday and Sunday can also be used, with Friday being more common. The important thing to note is that the early bird gets the worm.
Pricing – We have all heard how you can get great items at cheap prices at garage sales, but just how low and how do you know is a good price and what is high? First, everything is driven by supply and demand and garage sales are no different. The more common the item, the lower the price. A great rule to use was given to me years ago by an experienced garage saler when I was starting out and I continue to use it. At a garage sale, a brand new item should be priced no more than ½ of it’s original price, and the price should drop from there based on condition. Obviously this is just a general rule, and things like antiques and clothes are examples exceptions, antiques being higher priced and clothes being cheaper since the supply is so large.
Haggling – One of the great things about garage/yard sales is the opportunity to NICELY haggling on the prices instead of being stuck with the posted price. We have to note here that there are basically two types of people that have garage sales: the ones that want to make money, and the ones that want to get rid of stuff. The people that want to make money will usually have higher prices and be less willing to deal. On the other hand, if the goal is to avoid carrying the stuff back into the house, the hosts will gladly make reasonable deals. No matter who it is, the key is to be nice and respectful when you make your offer. Don’t offer $5 when the marked price is $100 (even if it is only worth $5). Unreasonable offers have a way of turning off the sellers and resulting in refusal of any deal. A great tip is to make a single offer for multiple items as a ‘bundle’, especially if the sellers are trying to get rid of stuff. Remember, polite haggling is an accepted part of garage sales so feel free to make an offer, everything is OBO at a garage sale!
Estate Sales – You will undoubtedly come across garage sales that are estate sales in disguise. Someone will hire people to go into a deceased relative’s house and put on a sale in order to clean it out. Unfortunately, the problem with estate sales is that the prices are usually closer to retail, there is virtually no haggling allowed, and no one knows the actual history of the items. Sometimes you can find cool items since it is a total clear out of a house but just understand the vibe is different than a normal garage sale.
Hosting a Garage Sale
So you want to host your own garage sale. You have been going through your house sorting out the unwanted and unneeded items and now you have enough for a yard sale! Now what? Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction to a successful garage sale!
Clearly marked prices – Many people do not price their items until someone asks them “how much” and they quickly decide on the spot what they think they should charge. Bad idea. You would be surprised how many sales are lost because shoppers never bother to ask the price. It also requires a lot of management to stay on top of all the requests for pricing, not to mention trying to remember what you had quoted. I recommend using dots with the prices written or printed on them. You can buy premade dots (I think they are too expensive) or you can easily print your own with your own prices. This makes it easy to slap a price on everything and the prices are easy to find (colored dots show up nicely). For many items like clothes, videos/DVD’s, and books, using a sign to state a price per each is a no brainer rather than trying to price each item.
Be early – You may not want to hear this but the serious buyers with money to spend show up early, real early. How early? If you want to sell the most stuff, you need to be ready to sell at dawn. Yes, I said dawn. You may not have all your stuff laid out yet, but you need to have most of it ready to go and have your money box setup because the early birds will be at your door and buying.
Lay things out, not piled up – A common practice is to put things out it boxes or piles and let people dig through them. Bad idea. Many people won’t bother digging to see if there is anything of interest. A better idea is to lay everything out on tables, sheets on the ground, plywood on blocks, etc (you get the idea). The normal garage saler only spends a few minutes at each garage sale glancing at what is there before going to the next place. You want to make sure they can see everything without having to dig.
Signs – The #1 way that people find garage sales is by following signs. Yes, you can put an ad in the classifieds, and there are websites that list garage sales, but the truth is that the majority of people find garage sales by looking for signs at intersections in their area of town. Make sure your signs are easy to read, noticeable, and give clear direction. The standard big arrow with the words “Garage Sale” works very well. You might be tempted to put your address on the sign but remember that most people only have a few seconds to read the sign when they are going through the intersection, so sticking with the direction arrow is probably the better idea. I like to stick balloons on my signs to help catch the eyes and then have the same balloons on my mailbox so that people know they have reached the advertised yard sale. By the way, PLEASE take your signs down at the end of your garage sale. It is not only courteous, but it helps to keep the local authorities from creating rules against posting sales.
Final Thoughts
The key thing to remember is that garage/yard sales are a great way to stretch your dollar as a buyer and a nice way to make a dollar as a seller. My advice is get out and see what treasures you can find. Everyone has their own style as a buyer or a seller and you will discover what suits you, which after all is part of the fun.